I posted this in the regional forum but, since I'm still learning my way around, I hope it is okay to post it here as well.

Hello everyone. I'm looking forward to learning a lot here and hopefully, someday, contributing a lot as well. I bought a Harley a couple of years ago and joined a forum like this. It has taught me a lot and saved me lots of money but has also cost me lots in modifications I never thought I'd make on my own. Except for costing me lots of money, I hope everything else happens the same way here.

I'm from Eastern, NC and later this week, I will be picking up an 05 Mazda RX-8. It's white and has lots of options. It was listed on autotrader as a "touring" but the VIN comes up as base-shinka. I'm sure I'll forget something but I know it has 18" rims, a sunroof, bose stereo system, and power everything except for the seats. It has the shiftable automatic because the car is actually for my daughter. But, she doesn't turn 16 until the end of the year, so it is my project/toy until then. Except for 1 recent door ding and some minor scratches on the console trim, the car looks and drives like it just came off the lot. It has 43k miles on it and the owner has barely put 1000 of those miles in it in the past year according to the VIN check I ran. Her story is that she has 2 kids now, with 1 being an infant and she takes them everywhere she goes and it's a pain with this car. So, she drives a PT Cruiser instead (that's gotta hurt). Anyway, in my judgement, she is being honest.

So, for my questions:

What exactly is "Shinka"? Is it a trim level, or some option group or is that truly a specific model of the RX8?

What's the real scoop on the articles I've seen on the internet about potential engine problems and running 5w-20 vs. 5w-30 oil?

Are there any things I need to look out for or do to be on the safe side once I get this car? I intend to take it in (not to a dealer) and have the fluids checked, oil changed, tires checked out (they are aftermarket Kumo tires with 15k on them), and state inspection done. Should I request 5w-30 oil or stay with factory specified oil?

Here's a picture assuming this works the same way it does on the other forums I am a member of.

 

Heya, welcome to the addiction!

First, if you have a white 2005, then you do not have a Shinka. Shinka is the special edition, with 2005 Shinkas only coming in Black Cherry Mica. 2006 Shinkas came in several colors, including Whitewater pearl, although only Copper Red was available to Shinkas, making people refer to it as the 'true 2006 Shinka'.

If you do not have power seats, then you have base or touring, if you have 18" wheels, then you do not have base, so you have a Touring.

As far as oil...that is hottly debated, without any clear proof or evidence one way or another. Read up on it, make your decision, and stick with it. But at least premix, that everyone agrees on

Reading the stickies is your best bet to get started on the basics

Welcome again!

 

It is at least a Touring if it has a moonroof. If it has leather and heated seats, it is Grand Touring. Do a search, there should be tons of threads about oil.

Welcome.

 

RIWWP, thanks for the response. Can't say I'm any less confused on the model. The girl I'm buying from wasn't aware of it being a Touring but said that is what autotrader.com came up with when she entered all of the options it prompted it her for. I thought, and so did she, that the touring model came with a nav system and this one doesn't have it. When I plug the VIN into the vincheck application on nadaguides.com, it comes up with 05 Mazda RX-8 base-Shinka. I'll go with touring for now (wish I could change my screen name - haha). I know one thing, it's a beautiful car and very fun to drive. My daughter grinned ear to ear all the way home when we went to look at it and I committed to buy it.

As for the oil, I've run into similar debates for motorcycles with conventional vs. synthetic. So, that comes as no surprise. I will certainly take some time to continue going through the stickies and reading up.

But, no you have my curiousity up - what do you mean by premix?

Also, I know I shouldn't let myself get to skiddish about the issues I'm reading about because they are posted in the issues forum (no good news usually). But, are these cars particularly troublesome such that they need to be cared for or babied all that much? I'm reading things about engines being rebuilt and cars overheating, etc. Should that bother me? I've always heard how reliable and durable the rotary engines are and I want a dependable, easily maintainable car for my daughter to drive. Now second guessing if I waited too late to do my homework. Any words of comfort out there? Should I take this to an authorized dealer and have it checked for anything specific? Any recalls I need to make sure have been taken care of? Can't I check that out by calling Mazda with the VIN? All of the maint. records for this car check out and most of the work was done at the local Mazda dealership.

 

First things first... clear corners! Especially for a WWP. Just my 2 cents

 

Thanks. So, until further notice, it's officially a touring. No leather or heated seats so not a Grand.

 

Please remember, I'm a newbie. So, what are clear corners? I assume WWP is whitewater pearl?

 

ON a WWP get rid of the REAR WING....and clear corners +2

 

Clear corners are the clear plastic covers for the side marker lights on the front fender wells. They are orange with clear bulb underneath. Many change to clear plastic covers to get rid of the orange plastic. Some change to an orange bulb, some change to white bulb. I put an orange bulb in there so it lights up orange at night and can show some orange during the day.

 

I'm still a newbie, too And yes, Whitewater Pearl. You'll get used to it all... VR is Velocity Red, BB is Brilliant Black, etc.

My first question was What are these clear corner things I keep hearing about? lol Look at the front side of your car... see the amber/yellow side marker light? If you replace that with a clear plastic one with a white bulb underneath, it's sharp, a very clean look. Of course, all these things are up to personal preference. Have fun!

 

Okay, still don't follow. What's the spoiler got to do with clearing corners?

And getting rid of the spoiler is not an option anyway. This car will be for a 16 year old and not a performance ride. A sporty car with a rear spoiler was a must on her wishlist so the wing isn't going anywhere. Any corner she can't clear with the wing, I suspect she has no business trying to clear.

 

Okay, I'm batting .000 trying to follow you guys so far. I get the clear corners thing now. I agree, a nice monochrome look.

Funny how similar this is to my experiences on the harley forums I visit often. On there, we tell people first things first, remove the side reflectors and the idiot stickers on the downtubes.

Lovin it here already.

So, are the clear corners something you can pick up at an auto parts store or must they be ordered?

 

like someone else already said, it's either a touring or grand touring. base auto would come w/ 16" rims and no fog lights. sport doesn't have moonroof. grand touring has leather and power seats. and nada is totally wrong; this ain't a shinka

not to scare you, but if you want a reliable low-maintenance car for your teenage daughter, this is most likely the wrong car. it doest require more attention than your average car, ie needs to be "babied." it has a fair number of quirks and would seem like quite a prima donna to the uncommitted. if you want a sporty, fun, yet practical car for your daughter, might want to consider something like civic si or mustang or something. if you buy this car, be prepared to either keep it for yourself or be your daughter's mechanic. you'd want to keep it for youself anyway 'cuz it's so awesome

 

Yes, WWP is Whitewater Pearl (hence my name ), and you can change your screen name with a PM to an admin, if it bothers you.

Yes, you have a Touring. There are several things which were optional across all packages, and never standard on any package, including the Nav system.

Premixing comes from the similarity between the rotory engine and a 2 stroke piston engine, and the lack of sufficient oil getting to the center of the apex seals for 2004 through 2008 RX-8s. 2009 this was addressed with a 3rd oil injector in the center. Since we can't 'just get a 3rd injector', there are several ways of addressing it, either dumping tons more oil in via the OMP, or else adding 2-stroke oil to your gas tank every fill-up (Premixing). Just and 2-stroke won't help you much though, since there is a wide range of 2-stoke out there. TCW-3 was recommended for a while, but I believe that has faded, generally MMO or Idemisu (sp?) are the recommended options, both of which you have to order.

Don't get scared off by the Issues and Problems forum, just keep stuff you see in there in the back of your mind as symptoms to watch for. No one makes a thread about every time their 8 doesn't have a problem, so you only see it when people do have problems, and the 'lot' there isn't a good representation of the total. I researched the 8 for 2 years before I bought it, a large chunk of that was on the forums here, and those issues didn't scare me away Try this site out, which I think started with an 8 member that expanded into all makes and models, trying to get the true reliability of the 8.
Most of the problems people run into is not taking care of it. But then, that is true with most cars, just lack of care will kill the 8 faster than it will kill a Toyota or Honda. Check the oil regularly, keep a quart on hand because you should be burning it, generally around 1 quart every 3k miles, but it may vary. If your not burning any, that is bad, and your OMP is probably broken. It NEEDS oil injected for the apex seals. Overheating generally isn't a problem for most people unless your area gets REALLY hot... and I don't think NC qualifies
Make sure you redline it under full throttle, in gear regularly, it really does keep the engine healthy, and there is no danger to your engine. Don't hold it at redline constantly, because the heat will kill your transmission if you don't let it cool off. Your redline is transmission limited, not engine limited. Don't worry about piston rings or a head gasket If you use the manual shifting mode, and I recommend it, shift high, not low. Let it rev up, it needs the revs to help keep carbon clear. Redlining often doesn't mean you won't have any engine problems, but you significantly reduce the chance of carbon related issues, including carbon lock and carbon related compression issues. Kinda like how eating fiber keeps your cholesterol down, but doesn't prevent a heart attack, just reduces a risk factor.

Feel free to ask questions, but if you think that almost everyone would know the answer, then it has been asked before and do a search, or else some of the twitchy people might jump you. The more unusual the question, the better

I put my clear corners on yesterday, here are pics if it helps
https://www.rx8club.com/showpost.php...&postcount=942

Most of the comments regarding mods are all personal preference, they want your 8 to look like theirs, which they justifiably believe that it is the best looking 8 out there. Everyone is biased to their own 8, and they want a fan base following. Almost no one succeeds

 

Okay when someone posts +1 or +# it means they agree with the previous post/comment...
So I said Get Rid of the Rear Wing because most WWP do and all look clean without it....when i said clear corners +1 or +2 means I agree with clear corners +# many times....you get me? If she wants a WWP with a rear wing get her a MAZDASPEED wing from FLUIDMOTORSPORTS...

 

I know what +1 means, thanks. General forum lingo I should know. It's the RX8 lingo I need to learn. And I definitely need to learn more about this premixing and adding oil every 3000 miles. Aren't you supposed to change the oil every 3k miles anyway?

At least I've already learned a lot on the first day and I don't even have the title to the car yet.

Here are a few more pix. Other than the brake light mask, does anyone see anything else that is aftermarket, non-stock?

 

Welcome to the addiction....make sure u teach your daughter to check oil..(or at least make sure tha u do) because by design this motor is meant to burn oil and it will about a qt or so an oil change for me(however i also premix 8oz to a tank)....the car looks good...sounds like u got a touring....I also recommend the clear corners....all 8's look good with them except the yellows(which i have) in my personal opinion....

Welcome again...and don't hesitate to search the boards for any other ?'s u may have

 

It isn't 'adding oil every 3,000 miles', it is that if you don't add around a quart over those 3,000 miles between oil changes, you will probably be critically low on oil by the time you get to 3,000 miles. If it helps, I put in 4 quarts of oil on the change (slightly high I think), put in half a quart at about 1k, another half quart about 2k, and when I change the oil at 3k, i drain about 3.1 quarts out. So I actually burn nearly 2 quarts over 3k, but leaving 2 quarts in there is way too low, and anything over 4 quarts in the system starts giving you alot of oil blowback in your intake. 2009 has a much higher capacity oil pan which might help 'solve' the need to add oil, but it isn't a big deal to begin with, just gotta check it

If you oil light comes on, it is WAY past when you should have added oil.

 

check oil every....i mean add oil , because trust me you're gonna need to every 1500 mi....keep a quart sandwiched between the passenger fender and the window washer fluid! Perfect holding spot!!!!

 

welcome to the club and be sure to read the stickies. most of your questions have been answered multiple times

 

Thanks everyone for the info. I certainly wasn't aware of the oil deal, especially the premixing. I take it that premixing is not something the manufacturer requires or recommends but is fairly accepted here is a good idea due to the nature of the engine? I gotta tell ya, I can easily teach my daughter to check the oil now and then. But, asking her to add 2-stroke oil to the gas tank everytime she puts gas in is probably going to be a stretch. It's hard for me to believe that, in this day and age, a car would require such a thing just to keep from blowing something up.

 

It is something that owners of earlier rotary powered cars found to make the engine last longer. I started doing it on this car. Mazda (supposedly) has made corrections to inject more oil into the combustion combustion chamber than when the car was first introduced.

If you really want to do that, PM one of the Admins (Zoom 44 or Elara). They can help with that.

 

the rotary accents on the bottom front and back bumpers arent stock the 3rd brake light with the mask that says rx8 isnt stock

those arent stock i dont think well they werent stock on mine correct me if im wrong

new to the forum too so not so sure!

 

^ Rotory accent isn't 'standard', but it -is- a dealer installed accessory, and should count as stock.



Does the RX-8 require premixing to avoid blowing up? Certainly not. There is a member in Florida that became the 3rd owner and thought her engine was dead at 155,000 miles, but it turned out to just be badly flooded. I am sure that neither she nor any of the previous owners premixed, or followed the redline-a-day motto, and might not have even added oil regularly. In terms of wear on the engine, the rotory is second to none.

That being said, you asked for tips, and premixing is healthy for the engine. This isn't a piston engine, so you take care of it different. Not drastically different, but there is a noticeable difference. Not all piston rules apply to rotories, and several rotory rules are deadly to pistons. Different isn't bad. Just different.
I am not going to argue that you should, or should not push this with your daughter, just putting it out there as a good idea, as you asked

If you had a 2009, then I wouldn't have mentioned it, since Mazda appears to have finally addressed this with a design change. Only time will tell if their change works. And if it makes you feel better, the Mazda engineers pushed to have that 3rd injector built in before it was launched worldwide for the 2004 model, but they were unsuccessful, so it made it into the series 2 redesign. No one is perfect

 

Thanks. I'll take all of this in, believe me. For now, I'll read all the stickies and topics I can find and will come back later with questions and clarifications if needed. I know how this forum stuff works. Newbies showing up all the time asking the same questions over and over. Doesn't bother me over on the harley forum but I know it does bug a lot of people for some reason. So, I won't push my luck here.

I do appreciate all of the feedback.